Why are they thinking of burning coins that represent profits?? This is so stupid, this won't make a dent in overall supply (the idea is to reduce supply of dash overall) and those precious funds could be used for other useful things!

I believe it's more like the potential to be able to do so that counts.

For example, the whole point of stocks is "ownership" in a company with the right to eventually receive dividends. Some stocks don't or won't ever issue dividends, yet their stock price still has some value (mysteriously?).

The ability to "buyback" DASH allows Dash Investment Foundation to give the DASH network a similar potential value proposition. Now, the profits from investments of the network can be directly transferred (even if never executed, or not executed for a long time).

It's more likely that (for some time at least) "those precious funds" would "be used for other useful things!" (i.e. they could reinvest them in other endeavors that benefit the network)

The only good reason to "issue dividends" is because you don't think you have the ability to make a better return on your capital, so you return it to the owners. Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway doesn't issue a dividend because he can almost always make better use of the capital. But I think he's said that if there ever comes a time when he doesn't believe he can allocate that capital efficiently, then he would consider issuing dividends.

Now, we don't know how "savvy" Dash Investment Foundation managers will be. If they have poor decision-making ability, I would much prefer they return those profits to the network by burning coins (or if profits are earned in fiat, then buy on the open market first before burning).

tldr; The announcement/ability/potential for buying and burning coins is a way for the entire DASH network to benefit from investments of its treasury.

The burning of Dash is only there as an option. If it didn’t exist there would be NO way to directly distribute profits to the network. However, as Ryan has stated multiple times, this is not something that will happen often. IMO burning will be rare, only after DIF has made a significant profit and when there are no other good reinvestment opportunities.

Furthermore, Ryan mentioned that this would only happen if the Supervisors (elected by the network) decide to go this route. Given that, I would expect a formal poll of the masternodes by said Supervisors before conducting a burn if they expect to keep their position post future elections.

tl;dr The burning of coins is really not a big deal. It is not something you need to worry about. It exists only as an option in the rare case that there no other good use for investment profits. I would be shocked if there was a burn anytime soon (read: years).

Dash aims to be the most scalable and most user-friendly cryptocurrency in the world. Its network features instantly confirmed transactions, erasable transaction history and a self-governing & self-funding model through incentivized full nodes.

Dash aims to be the most user-friendly and most on-chain-scalable cryptocurrency in the world.

Its network features instantly confirmed, double-spend-proof, optionally anonymous transactions, a self-governing & self-funding model through incentivized full nodes and a roadmap to scale to up to 400MB in blocksize

Dash is the first true Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). Our network is able to hire and pay people to improve itself.